EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to seek a joint position on Kosovo’s independence declaration.While the major European powers are widely expected to recognise Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, several other countries have strong reservations.

Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain have expressed anxiety about the signal that recognition might send to separatists.

Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians celebrated with fireworks late into the night after parliament’s declaration.

Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, chairing the EU meeting, said “I understand many of the member states will recognise” Kosovo.

His British and French colleagues insisted Kosovo was a unique case and called for EU unity on the issue, the BBC’s Oana Lungescu reports.

This process of paulatine independence achieved by Kosovo can be used (and Putin is right here) by other secesionists movements in other parts of the world to legitimate their cause, as here can be the Basque case, in France the Corse, or in Georgia the Osetian people (I add, the Welsh/Scottish in GB, for example…). I’m not saying that the situations are similar, just that this case can be used as a basis by the secesionists movements in other parts of Europe and Asia because this “independence” has been supported by most of the Western countries.

What’s the problem? That Russia is angry, not only because of Kosovo’s independence, but also because of the Eastern European countries are going to be the soil to the US missile defense system, Poland having already agreed to it. So Putin is already redirecting gas reserves to China ( hmm ;) ), Irán (hmmmmm ;) ) and in general the Eastern Asian countries (India, Japan…), forming the new axis: Russia-China-Iran. An axis that is nothing but the worse thing that can happen: an autocrat, a communist and an “mystical” islamo-fascist, all of them united.

Must European policy be dependent from the countries which have gas or oil? No, but it is. Only if European Governments understand than we must use the energetic nuclear potential, we would be freed from any dictator/autocrat who has gas or oil. Is Putin right? Yes, I agree with Aquiles, but not because of the energetic question, but because of the danger this poses not only to other countries, but to the Serbs who are still living in this “independent” Kosovo.

The United States should be worried that Russia, China and OPEC oil-producing countries could use their growing financial clout to advance political goals, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress on Tuesday.

They do not understand they are just digging their own grave: not supporting Russia never (they could have supported Russia in Kosovo’s affair and calm down the relations a bit) they are causing Russia to fall on China’s embrace. Something that is not even strange, considering the growin influence of China in Siberia… because of the reserves of gas and oil that are the real target of Chinese Communists. Curiously, China is doing there the same thing Alban-Kosovars have done in Kosovo: massive immigration which has caused a change even in the name of Vladivostok, which is now known by its Chinese name. Surely this worries Putin a lot and it’s another reason not to support Kosovo’s independence, as China is not Serbia…

Even leaving aside the question of international legitimacy, however, there is another still more fundamental reason for insisting that Kosovo did not become independent yesterday and will not be independent for the foreseeable future – if indeed ever. In its resolution, the Kosovo parliament declared that Kosovo is an “independent and sovereign state.” But in the very next sentence it states that this declaration is occurring “in full accordance” with the famous “Ahtisaari Plan” for Kosovo’s final status: so-named for UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. Now, even a cursory glance at the Ahtisaari Plan – which can be consulted in full here – makes obvious that it does not in fact foresee independence for Kosovo, but rather what has been euphemistically described as “supervised independence.”

Kosovo is, needless to say, to be independent from Serbia – which de facto it has been, in any case, since the close of the NATO bombing campaign in June 1999 – and it is to have its “own” constitution and its “own” political institutions. But these political institutions as a whole are to be subjected to the higher authority of an “International Civilian Representative” invested with dictatorial powers. The International Civilian Representative or “ICR” is empowered, for instance, to annul any laws or decisions adopted by the local Kosovo authorities and to “sanction” or outright dismiss public officials. Lest there be any doubt about where the ultimate authority in Kosovo resides, the International Civilian Representative is to serve simultaneously as the “Special Representative” of the European Union.

“We’ll strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence,” Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said ahead of an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, called by Moscow.

Albanians are seen passing a banner which reads, ‘Kosovo Is Free’, in the Albanian capital of Tirana, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008. People throughout Albania were celebrating Kosovo‘s independence Sunday, as the national flag fluttered from state buildings and private homes alike. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)